


For All Eternity

by unfolded73



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Episode: s06e20 The Song in Your Heart, F/M, Missing Scene, Parent-Child Relationship, Step-parents, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 11:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10875483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: Missing scene set immediately after the scene in the mayor’s office and before the wedding.





	For All Eternity

“I hate to break up this touching tableau,” Zelena said, and Killian opened his eyes as Emma’s lips parted from his, “but just because you vanquished the Black Fairy doesn’t mean her curse isn’t still in the clock tower, waiting to hit us at six o’clock. We still haven’t managed to stop it.”

Emma was looking into his eyes and smiling, and at Zelena’s reminder she just shrugged. “So we get married at five.” She looked around at her parents. “Five thirty? I don’t know, what do you think?”

She looked so hopeful, as if the looming curse was just an inconvenience, like the wedding flowers not being the right ones, and he didn’t want to dash her hopes, he really didn’t, but how could they get married now? “Emma, darling–”

“No, I just…” She closed her eyes and squeezed his hand tightly. “I know that this isn’t over. I know there’s a curse coming that we can’t stop. So rather than spending these last few hours worrying about it, can we…” She met the gaze of each member of her family in turn. “I just want to be married. Can we do that?”

“Absolutely,” Regina said firmly. “A little bit of magical assistance and I can have everything set up for the ceremony in no time.”

“I’ll let Archie know about the time change,” Henry offered, “And I’ll tell Leroy and Granny to spread the word with everyone else.”

Emma turned back to Killian. “Is this okay? I know it’s not ideal. But I know we’re going to win this battle, I _know_ it, and in the meantime I don’t want to a waste another second not being married to you.”

He smiled, feeling tears pressing behind his eyes. “I don’t want to waste another second either. If you want to get married now, then nothing would make me happier.”

“So for the next few hours, we put the curse completely out of our minds, agreed?” Snow said. “We just focus on this happy occasion.”

“What curse?” David replied, grinning. “I don’t know anything about a curse.”

The group started to go their separate ways, leaving Killian, Emma, and her parents standing in Regina’s office. “Love, I have only one hesitation about this plan,” Killian said, still holding Emma’s hand. Her eyes flickered with doubt at his words, so he smiled reassuringly at her, shaking his head to deny that he had any doubts about marrying her today. He couldn’t possibly want anything more, and he hoped she knew that. “About the suit…”

Emma grimaced, laughing a little bit. “Sorry, I didn’t have a lot of time, and there aren’t a lot of choices in Storybrooke. I know it’s not really you, so you don’t have to wear it. You can show up in your long pirate coat and nothing else for all I care.”

He smirked. “I seem to recall it was _you_ who liked to wear my pirate coat and nothing–”

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” David said, cutting him off. He clapped Killian on the back. “There’s an old tailor who lives here in Storybrooke who might be able to help us. He’s retired, but he owes me a favor.”

“He’s not going to be able to whip up a new suit in two hours, David.” Snow said.

“Maybe not, but I bet we can still find something that Killian would like better and prevent anyone from coming to this wedding naked.”

After parting ways from his soon-to-be bride and her mother, he and David climbed into the truck. “Thanks for this, mate. I appreciate the help.”

David shrugged, putting the truck in gear. “Not a problem.”

Killian glanced up at the clock tower as they drove past it. “What do you think this curse will do to us?”

“We’re not supposed to be thinking about it right now.”

“Easier said than done,” Killian said.

“Whatever it is, I believe Emma can prevail. Love will defeat darkness.”

“You sound like your wife.”

David smiled. “That’s the thing about being married, Hook. You tend to wear off on each other over time.”

“I just hope that Emma and I are allowed the luxury of time.” Much as he tried to have faith that Emma would win and the Black Fairy would be defeated, there was a dark doubt in his heart. The image of standing over his wife’s lifeless body, a widower after only a few minutes of marriage, kept intruding on his thoughts.

“You will be,” David said firmly. “We may have a fight still left to fight, but once we’ve won it, you’ll have your whole lives ahead of you.” He stopped the truck in front of a small house, then turned to face Killian. “Trust me. This isn’t the end.”

“Curse or no curse?” Killian asked, smiling faintly. He felt a flush on his cheeks at David’s sincerity. At how much he cared.

“As I’ve often been told, True Love can break any curse.” He reached for the door handle of the truck, then paused and added, “and this family has true love in spades. Whatever curse she throws at us, we can break it.”

“Why, Dave, I never knew you felt this way about me. I’m honored, but I fear my heart belongs to your daughter.”

David punched him in the arm. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Listen, Dave, there’s something I wanted…” Killian heaved a sigh.

“What is it?”

Killian stared down at the rings on his fingers, the rings that had been a constant in his life for so long, he wasn’t sure he would recognize his own hand without them. Using his thumb and the tip of his hook, he started to work the one on his index finger off. “I told Emma once…” He sighed again and started over. “When Emma was the Dark One, before I learned what had happened in Camelot, I told her that these rings represented men I had killed. Murdered. Not… not your father, but deaths that were equally wrong. Deaths that have weighed heavy on my conscience these many years.”

“Hook–”

“Just… just let me finish.” The ring on his index finger fell into his lap and he began working off the one on his ring finger. “To be frank, I wasn’t entirely honest with her. Not that I hadn’t killed men and taken jewelry off of them, so the spirit of what I was saying was true, but the specifics were… I was trying to make a point.”

“Which was?”

“I told her that these rings had come to symbolize the fact that any sin can be forgiven if someone loves you. That they were a reminder of that.” The second ring dropped off, and he started working on his thumb ring. With a frustrated sigh at watching this painstaking process, David reached over and helped pull Killian’s thumb ring off. His hand bare save for the stark tan lines on three of his fingers, Killian scooped the rings into his palm and shook his hand, allowing the metal to clink together.

“But they were also a reminder that I hadn’t forgiven myself. I assumed I never would. But now, I…” He looked up and met his friend’s eyes. “Now I think I’m ready to start fresh. I know I can’t make up for what I did all those years ago–”

“You’ve made up for it every time that you’ve helped my daughter to become the person that she’s become,” David said. “With every action you’ve taken that has made you a part of our family.”

Killian blinked at that, trying not to let tears spill over. “Thank you.”

Dave clapped him on the back, his go-to move to signify affection. “Now, let’s go find you something to wear at this wedding.”

~*~

“This is the one,” Emma said, tears shining in her eyes.

Snow fingered the lace sleeves of the wedding dress hanging in Emma’s bedroom. “I hadn’t thought you would like this one originally, which is why I didn’t show it to you. I wasn’t sure if it was your style.”

“I guess it isn’t, really, but…” She said down on the bed, picking up a leather bookmark of Killian’s from his bedside table and turning it over and over in her hands. “When I was little and I used to imagine my wedding, the dress in my imagination looked a lot like this one.” She chuckled. “Also that rooftop is going to be cold, and so I’m thinking bare shoulders is not the way to go.”

Clapping her hands together, Snow moved to start taking the dress off the hanger. “Then let’s get you into it.”

“Mom, can…” Emma swallowed against a lump in her throat. “Can you give me just a minute?”

“Emma, you made the right decision, going forward with the wedding.” Snow sat down at her side. “If you’re having doubts–”

“I’m not. I know it’s the right decision. Even if we’re only married for an hour, or a minute, it will be worth it. To stand up there and say…” A tear rolled down her cheek, and Emma took a shaky inhale. “I’ve got to get all this crying out of the way now, before we put on my makeup.” She tried again. “It’s important to me to stand up there and say our vows in front of everyone, even if we’re doomed to the shortest marriage in history.”

“Emma, you’re going to win the final battle, and this is not going to be the shortest marriage in history. You’re going to have a long and happy marriage, I know it.” Snow picked up one of Emma’s hands in both of hers and squeezed.

“Mom, you and I both know that even if I win, even if I defeat her, I still may not survive. The price I may have to pay for saving everyone else from the Black Fairy may be my life.”

“I don’t believe that, Emma.” Snow was fierce in her denial. “You’ve paid too high a price already, and you have True Love, and if fate doesn’t let you enjoy a life with that love, then I’m going to personally have a word with whoever is in charge of all this.”

Emma laughed at that. “I think the fates must be trembling in fear of you right now, Mom.”

“Hell yeah they are.”

“I love you,” Emma gasped, pulling her mother into a hug.

“I love you too, baby.” They held each other for several minutes, rocking slightly back and forth on the bed. Finally they released each other, Emma grabbing tissue box and putting it between them so that both of them could dry their tears. “Do you know when I suspected that you and Hook might be meant for each other?” Snow asked.

Emma laughed a watery laugh. “When was that?”

“After Elsa almost froze you to death, and they brought you back to the loft to warm you up, I watched the way he held you, the way he watched over you, and I realized that he wasn’t just infatuated with you – he was completely, head-over-heels in love with you. And I knew that if you were willing to let down your walls and love him in return, the two of you could really build something together. And that’s exactly what happened. Not even the ultimate darkness, not even _death itself_ was able to tear you apart.”

“Yeah, we talked to Archie about that,” Emma said, still dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “He isn’t going to say ‘til death do us part’. He’s going to say something else instead.”

Snow raised her eyebrows. “What’s he going to say?”

“You’ll have to show up at the wedding and see.”

~*~

“Oh yeah, that’s way better,” Henry said as he dropped down the last rung of the ladder into the captain’s quarters.

Killian eyed his reflection critically in the mirror. He turned his head back and forth, feeling not a little bit strangled by the buttoned-up shirt collar. Still, he would endure any hardship if it meant marrying his love. “You think so?”

“Yeah, no one would recognize you if you showed up at the wedding in white. They’d be all, ‘Who’s that guy Emma Swan is marrying? What happened to the pirate?’”

Killian laughed at that. “You may be right, lad.” He turned around and took in Henry in his own tuxedo. “Well, you look rather smart yourself.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got no idea how to tie this thing,” he said, holding up the tie that was still in his hand. “But I figured you might not either,” he said, gesturing to the tie hanging loose around Killian’s neck, “or that if you did, you might not be able to do it one-handed.”

“We make quite a helpless pair, don’t we?”

“Not helpless,” Henry said with a smirk, holding up his phone. “That’s what YouTube is for.”

They watched a video on tying bow ties, huddled over the small screen together, and after several minutes and several false starts, both ties managed to get tied.

They stood close together, looking at their reflections in Killian’s one small mirror. “You have the rings, lad?”

“Safe and sound, right here,” Henry said, tapping his jacket pocket. “Granddad should be here to pick us up in a minute. Are you nervous?”

Their engagement had been so short, he’d hardly had time to think about the actual wedding. Now he paused and did just that. “Aye, I’m a tad nervous. Almost three hundred years and for most of those I assumed I’d never marry. Now there’s nothing I want more.”

“Thanks, for… making my mom so happy,” Henry said, stepping away, averting his eyes, and flushing. “And… I’m glad that you’re going to be my stepdad.”

Killian felt tears fill his eyes for the … fourth time today? He’d honestly lost count, and he hadn’t even seen Emma in her wedding dress yet. “I’m glad too, Henry. More than you know.” He put a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Come on, lad, we have a wedding to get to.”


End file.
